- Center for Integrative Studies
302 Berkey Hall
509 East Circle Drive
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824-1111 - 517-432-6152 office
- Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology, Southwestern Archaeology, Southwestern United States (Archaeology in North America), Ancestral Pueblo (Archaeology), Jumanos Pueblos, and 8 moreSalinas Province, North American Southwest, Cannibalism, Landscape Archaeology, Cultural Ecology, Anthropology, Archaeology of the U.S. Southwest, and Archaeological Theoryedit
- I understand from the American Anthropological Society that posting PDFs of published papers represents copyright inf... moreI understand from the American Anthropological Society that posting PDFs of published papers represents copyright infringement. Therefore, I have posted here only the abstracts of published papers. I have uploaded copies of conference papers here. Published papers are available from the original source.
After I did a research paper on radiocarbon dating in 7th grade science class, I decided that I wanted to be an archaeologist. I got my BA in geology from Carleton College in Minnesota, and then went to University of Michigan for graduate school. Since then, I've taught at Central Michigan University for about three years, and then at Michigan State University. I was always a fixed-term faculty member, but served as Assistant Chair of Anthropology at MSU for about eight years. In 2009 I moved to the Center for Integrative Studies at MSU, where I teach interdisciplinary social science. I served as Editor of American Antiquity from 209-2012. My professional interests include geoarchaeology, early village society (Neolithic), and Southwestern (North American) archaeology.edit
In some respects, the circular village layout might appear to be the ultimate expression of an egalitarian and highly integrated communal society, one in which individual needs are clearly subsumed to the needs of the community as a... more
In some respects, the circular village layout might appear to be the ultimate expression of an egalitarian and highly integrated communal society, one in which individual needs are clearly subsumed to the needs of the community as a whole. Cross-cultural studies in Amazonia and the eastern United States, however, suggest that this form of village organization may not be tied so closely to internal social organization as to regional context. The circular village layout may have been important in creating an uneasy but workable group identity vis-à-vis outsiders within a specific social context: that of regional demographic change, social uncertainty and violent inter-village conflict. Recent research in central New Mexico indicates that this regional context may also have been an important factor behind the construction of the little-known circular pueblo at Gran Quivira, Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
... First, the connection that they propose between processual archaeology, bipolar thought, and unilineal cultural evolution seems overstated: rejection of ... In their model of culture change inMesoamerica, egalitarian relationships are... more
... First, the connection that they propose between processual archaeology, bipolar thought, and unilineal cultural evolution seems overstated: rejection of ... In their model of culture change inMesoamerica, egalitarian relationships are maintained by social or cultural pressures; the ...
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
One has to applaud the attempt by Tracy Sweely and con-tributors to attack the thorny problem of how gender and power relations interpenetrated in prehistoric societies. There are hardly two topics for which a greater variety of... more
One has to applaud the attempt by Tracy Sweely and con-tributors to attack the thorny problem of how gender and power relations interpenetrated in prehistoric societies. There are hardly two topics for which a greater variety of approaches, is-sues, and conclusions could be ...
Research Interests:
In central New Mexico, tourists admire the majestic ruins of old Spanish churches and historic pueblos at Abo, Quarai, and Gran Quivira in Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument. The less-imposing remains of the earliest Indian... more
In central New Mexico, tourists admire the majestic ruins of old Spanish churches and historic pueblos at
Abo, Quarai, and Gran Quivira in Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument. The less-imposing remains of the earliest Indian farming settlements, however, have not attracted nearly as much notice from visitors or from professional archaeologists. In Constructing Community, Alison E. Rautman synthesizes over twenty years of research about this little-known period of early sedentary villages in the Salinas region.
Rautman tackles a very broad topic: how archaeologists use material evidence to infer and imagine how people lived in the past, how they coped with everyday decisions and tensions, and how they created a sense of themselves and their place in the world. Using several different lines of evidence, she reconstructs what life was like for the Ancestral Pueblo people of Salinas, and identifies some of the specific strategies that they used to develop and sustain their villages over time.
Examining evidence of each site's construction and developing spatial layout, Rautman traces changes in community organization across the architectural transitions from pithouses to jacal structures to unit pueblos, and finally to plaza-oriented pueblos. She finds that, in contrast to some other areas of the American Southwest, early villagers in Salinas repeatedly managed their built environment to emphasize the coherence and unity of the village as a whole. In this way, she argues, people in early farming villages across the Salinas region actively constructed and sustained a sense of social community.
Reviews:
There is very little recent information about the Salinas District available in the professional or more popular archaeological literature. Therefore, all of the data in this volume are relevant to scholars working in the Southwest, no matter their particular areas of expertise. The questions explored—the relationships among subsistence practices, mobility, settlement social organization—are of global interest.
—Linda S. Cordell, co-author of Archaeology of the Southwest
There are many other good discussions of Salinas archaeology, but few of these take on the millennia-long Pueblo sequence or the entire region and the relation of this region to neighboring regions. As such, this synthesis will be very useful to archaeologists working throughout the greater Southwest.
—Mark D. Varien, Crow Canyon Archaeological Center
Abo, Quarai, and Gran Quivira in Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument. The less-imposing remains of the earliest Indian farming settlements, however, have not attracted nearly as much notice from visitors or from professional archaeologists. In Constructing Community, Alison E. Rautman synthesizes over twenty years of research about this little-known period of early sedentary villages in the Salinas region.
Rautman tackles a very broad topic: how archaeologists use material evidence to infer and imagine how people lived in the past, how they coped with everyday decisions and tensions, and how they created a sense of themselves and their place in the world. Using several different lines of evidence, she reconstructs what life was like for the Ancestral Pueblo people of Salinas, and identifies some of the specific strategies that they used to develop and sustain their villages over time.
Examining evidence of each site's construction and developing spatial layout, Rautman traces changes in community organization across the architectural transitions from pithouses to jacal structures to unit pueblos, and finally to plaza-oriented pueblos. She finds that, in contrast to some other areas of the American Southwest, early villagers in Salinas repeatedly managed their built environment to emphasize the coherence and unity of the village as a whole. In this way, she argues, people in early farming villages across the Salinas region actively constructed and sustained a sense of social community.
Reviews:
There is very little recent information about the Salinas District available in the professional or more popular archaeological literature. Therefore, all of the data in this volume are relevant to scholars working in the Southwest, no matter their particular areas of expertise. The questions explored—the relationships among subsistence practices, mobility, settlement social organization—are of global interest.
—Linda S. Cordell, co-author of Archaeology of the Southwest
There are many other good discussions of Salinas archaeology, but few of these take on the millennia-long Pueblo sequence or the entire region and the relation of this region to neighboring regions. As such, this synthesis will be very useful to archaeologists working throughout the greater Southwest.
—Mark D. Varien, Crow Canyon Archaeological Center
Research Interests:
Evidence of fragmentary human remains and recent interpretations of possible cannibalism in the pre-Hispanic American Southwest has engaged archaeologists in a continuing debate regarding the nature of evidence and the logic and... more
Evidence of fragmentary human remains and recent interpretations of possible cannibalism in the pre-Hispanic American Southwest has engaged archaeologists in a continuing debate regarding the nature of evidence and the logic and presentation of meaningful argument in anthropology. Forensic study of the victims of the Alferd (sic) Packer case from southern Colorado in the 1870s contributes to this discussion by providing a detailed record of perimortem trauma, cut marks, and butchering patterns in a well-accepted case of short-term survival cannibalism. This evidence forms a valuable comparative database for interpreting human remains and evaluating the evidence for violence, warfare, and cannibalism in the American Southwest and highlights the contributions of an anthropological perspective in the study and interpretation of human remains in antiquity
Research Interests:
Recent claims of Anasazi cannibalism remain highly controversial (Bullock 1991, 1992; Grant 1989; Roberts 1996). We propose here that these recent discussions of cannibalism have been frustrated by the multiple meanings of the term... more
Recent claims of Anasazi cannibalism remain highly controversial (Bullock 1991, 1992; Grant 1989; Roberts 1996). We propose here that these recent discussions of cannibalism have been frustrated by the multiple meanings of the term itself, the many different social and cultural implications of different types of cannibalism, and, ultimately, the untestable nature of this concept when applied to the prehistoric period.
Research Interests:
This is an expanded version of a paper presented at the SAA meetings in 2004 Alison E. Rautman and Marjorie Heyman. “Dimensions of Continuity and Chang during Aggregation: Evidence from the Salinas Region of Central New Mexico” in the... more
This is an expanded version of a paper presented at the SAA meetings in 2004
Alison E. Rautman and Marjorie Heyman. “Dimensions of Continuity and Chang during Aggregation: Evidence from the Salinas Region of Central New Mexico” in the symposium “Village Formation, Identity, and Social Differentiation in the Coalition Period Rio Grande (A.D. 1200-1325), organized by Matthew Chamberlin. Society for American Archaeology, April 2004, Montreal. (The text of the presentation was posted on academia.edu in 2014)
This 2009 text includes many more figures and summary data.
Uploaded 2/16
The coding forms for the study and the excel data file are also included.
Alison E. Rautman and Marjorie Heyman. “Dimensions of Continuity and Chang during Aggregation: Evidence from the Salinas Region of Central New Mexico” in the symposium “Village Formation, Identity, and Social Differentiation in the Coalition Period Rio Grande (A.D. 1200-1325), organized by Matthew Chamberlin. Society for American Archaeology, April 2004, Montreal. (The text of the presentation was posted on academia.edu in 2014)
This 2009 text includes many more figures and summary data.
Uploaded 2/16
The coding forms for the study and the excel data file are also included.
Research Interests:
Excel file of Projectile Point measurements. To accompany "Dimensions of Continuity and Change during Aggregation: Projectile Point Morphology across the Pithouse to Pueblo Transition in Central New Mexico" by Marjorie W. Heyman and... more
Excel file of Projectile Point measurements. To accompany "Dimensions of Continuity and Change during Aggregation:
Projectile Point Morphology across the Pithouse to Pueblo Transition in Central New Mexico" by Marjorie W. Heyman and Alison E. Rautman (2009)
Uploaded 2/16
Projectile Point Morphology across the Pithouse to Pueblo Transition in Central New Mexico" by Marjorie W. Heyman and Alison E. Rautman (2009)
Uploaded 2/16
Research Interests:
This is the first field report from the 1986 excavations at LA-38448.
As Flanagan (1989) argued, all societies include both egalitarian situations, and situations in which system elements are strongly ranked. These situations may operate at different spatial scales or for different periods of time; they may... more
As Flanagan (1989) argued, all societies include both egalitarian situations, and situations in which system elements are strongly ranked. These situations may operate at different spatial scales or for different periods of time; they may affect different sizes of social groups, and their interactions may have more or less lasting effects on the entire system. These situations do not exist in a static equilibrium, but are dynamic in character, at times lead to conflicting or contradictory actions on the part of individuals or larger social groups. Our task is thus to identify the circumstances under which the resolution of these expected inconsistencies and conflicts may involve re-organization at a large enough scale that we recognize this process as "culture change" in the archaeological record.
Research Interests:
Evidence of fragmentary human remains and recent interpretations of possible cannibalism in the prehispanic American Southwest has gripped the public imagination and engaged archaeologists in a continuing debate regarding the nature of... more
Evidence of fragmentary human remains and recent interpretations of possible cannibalism in the prehispanic American Southwest has gripped the public imagination and engaged archaeologists in a continuing debate regarding the nature of evidence and the logic and presentation of meaningful argument in anthropology. We suggest here that a focus on the individual, in both a corporeal and metaphoric sense, operates in this argument on several different levels of analysis, including the study of the individual’s death history (including identification of perimortem trauma and subsequent natural and cultural alterations of the body) and also the study of the culturally constructed and negotiated individual in a cultural context. A focus on the “embodied individual” as an integrated physical and cultural construct provides a framework of meaning within which we can better understand the more general anthropological significance of recent studies of the issue of cannibalism, including a recent forensic study of a case of known cannibalism and also the continuing debate regarding the interpretation of skeletal evidence of perimortem violence and fragmentary human remains from the American Southwest.
Research Interests:
The organization of exterior space, whether visible or private, communal or domestic, is important in establishing the social context within which interactions between people take place. Differences in social context may prove to be... more
The organization of exterior space, whether visible or private, communal or domestic, is important in establishing the social context within which interactions between people take place. Differences in social context may prove to be particularly important in explaining variation in the organization of space within and between pithouse villages, as well as in the timing of pithouse use in different areas of the Southwest.
Research Interests:
Participation in a world of meaning associated with historic places creates a relationship to the past that apparently transcends modern categories of shared heritage and identity such as of Anglo, Hispanic, and Indian, with their... more
Participation in a world of meaning associated with historic places creates a relationship to the past that apparently transcends modern categories of shared heritage and identity such as of Anglo, Hispanic, and Indian, with their specific and particular pasts. The meaning that visitors find in ruins also challenges our conception of time, which neither proceeds smoothly from past to present to future, nor cycles through seasons and generations. Many people experience the ruins as both and simultaneously past and present, a place where landscape, buildings, things, and people from all times live in each visitor’s experience, a “collection of pasts” in the here- and-now.
Research Interests:
The goals of spatial analysis in archaeology include identifying spatial patterning in material remains, and also identifying the underlying processes that structure the observed patterning. In central New Mexico, inter-regional travel... more
The goals of spatial analysis in archaeology include identifying spatial patterning in
material remains, and also identifying the underlying processes that structure the observed patterning. In central New Mexico, inter-regional travel and exchange has long been assumed from patterns of artifact distribution, but little work has been done to explain the meaning of such patterns. Here, a model of regional climate is used to distinguish different spatial dimensions of environmental variability, to assess the possible impact of variability on local groups, and to evaluate the probable success of cultural strategies (such as group mobility and exchange) in coping with variability. It is proposed that pithouse communities in the Salinas area could have coped with most environmental variability by maintaining access to foodstuffs within a “alternative resource area” approximately 40 to 50 km away, in the Sierra Blanca region. The model suggests, moreover, that interactions extending such distances would be quite commonplace, and that this scale of mobility and exchange, while not necessarily involving every member of society, would constitute the pattern of everyday life for prehistoric pithouse communities in this region. Attention to the structure of environmental variability thus provides some idea of the spatial scale at which observed social responses could have been most effective, the conditions under which these responses might fail, and the level of “stress” involved in their use--for both the individual and for the social system as a whole.
material remains, and also identifying the underlying processes that structure the observed patterning. In central New Mexico, inter-regional travel and exchange has long been assumed from patterns of artifact distribution, but little work has been done to explain the meaning of such patterns. Here, a model of regional climate is used to distinguish different spatial dimensions of environmental variability, to assess the possible impact of variability on local groups, and to evaluate the probable success of cultural strategies (such as group mobility and exchange) in coping with variability. It is proposed that pithouse communities in the Salinas area could have coped with most environmental variability by maintaining access to foodstuffs within a “alternative resource area” approximately 40 to 50 km away, in the Sierra Blanca region. The model suggests, moreover, that interactions extending such distances would be quite commonplace, and that this scale of mobility and exchange, while not necessarily involving every member of society, would constitute the pattern of everyday life for prehistoric pithouse communities in this region. Attention to the structure of environmental variability thus provides some idea of the spatial scale at which observed social responses could have been most effective, the conditions under which these responses might fail, and the level of “stress” involved in their use--for both the individual and for the social system as a whole.
Research Interests:
Excavations undertaken at Frank’s Pueblo, a thirteenth century village in the Salinas Pueblo Province of New Mexico, reveal a multi-stage architectural evolution from dispersed to aggregated settlement and strong evidence of catastrophic... more
Excavations undertaken at Frank’s Pueblo, a thirteenth century village in the Salinas Pueblo Province of New Mexico, reveal a multi-stage architectural evolution from dispersed to aggregated settlement and strong evidence of catastrophic burning. We suggest that the Frank’s Ruin village responded to population massing in the nearby Rio Abajo region with increased defensive posturing, were driven temporarily from their home, and returned to rebuild and create a new plaza-pueblo shortly before the final abandonment of the site.
Research Interests:
Population aggregation is often associated with increased political and economic competition—changes that might well affect subsistence strategies and inter-group relationships. In the Salinas area, a change in site location to upland... more
Population aggregation is often associated with increased political and economic competition—changes that might well affect subsistence strategies and inter-group relationships. In the Salinas area, a change in site location to upland settings during aggregation is often cited as evidence for hostile competition between groups. A study of projectile point morphology from three sites spanning this time period tests the extent to which proposed political and economic changes affected hunting technology and weaponry. The continuity in point size, shape, and material suggest that (rather surprisingly) these changes were apparently not sufficient to alter existing patterns of point manufacture and use.
Research Interests:
Excavations at multiple villages in the Salinas Pueblo Province reveal divergent patterns of burning during the Pueblo IV period (A.D. 1275-1540). We draw on evidence of architectural history and structural damage, room, plaza, and midden... more
Excavations at multiple villages in the Salinas Pueblo Province reveal divergent patterns of burning during the Pueblo IV period (A.D. 1275-1540). We draw on evidence of architectural history and structural damage, room, plaza, and midden depositional histories, and natural site formation processes from both early and later Pueblo IV villages to compare the occupational conditions, extent, and nature of these different contexts. We characterize variability in the causes and outcomes of both pre-occupational and post-occupational burning episodes during this period, which implicate conflict as well as accidental fires.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
(typos corrected Sept 2014) The ruins of the Spanish mission and the Indian pueblo at Gran Quivira (Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument) have attracted archaeologists and also tourists for over two centuries. Excavation and ruins... more
(typos corrected Sept 2014)
The ruins of the Spanish mission and the Indian pueblo at Gran Quivira (Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument) have attracted archaeologists and also tourists for over two centuries. Excavation and ruins tourism have played a large role in the area's economy, history, and culture. People’s interest in the ruins have attracted tourist and research dollars, provided local employment, and contributed to the development of a unique local identity, as seen in local place names such as Ancient Cities Café. This paper traces the economic and cultural importance of the ruins for many different groups of people, including Anglo and Hispanic homesteaders, and also tourists in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to the present.
The ruins of the Spanish mission and the Indian pueblo at Gran Quivira (Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument) have attracted archaeologists and also tourists for over two centuries. Excavation and ruins tourism have played a large role in the area's economy, history, and culture. People’s interest in the ruins have attracted tourist and research dollars, provided local employment, and contributed to the development of a unique local identity, as seen in local place names such as Ancient Cities Café. This paper traces the economic and cultural importance of the ruins for many different groups of people, including Anglo and Hispanic homesteaders, and also tourists in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to the present.
Research Interests:
2014: advice for graduate students and beginning scholars about how to behave in graduate school and professional life, based on actual (sometimes incredible) events. This handbook is addressed primarily to the basically polite and... more
2014: advice for graduate students and beginning scholars about how to behave in graduate school and professional life, based on actual (sometimes incredible) events. This handbook is addressed primarily to the basically polite and well-meaning, earnest but clueless, shy, concerned, self-reflective, and deferential beginning graduate student and beginning professional. The others, whose more entertaining behaviors are described here, aren’t going to pay any attention to advice anyway.
Research Interests:
Notes about developing critical thinking among college students
